Anyone notice the screw up on the PCAT (10/18)

[Moolji]

It was in the reading section, i know i am not allowed to talk about it. But not going into specifics the question asked was asking about what the author meant in paragraph 3, but it was really in paragraph 4. Confused the hell out of me.

If the PCAT mods want to ask me what question it was I can speak to them by pm.

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[DeterminedGal09]

Yeah I seen it too, I was like wtf is there something I'm not seeing... LoL

 

[Matrix187]

Yes, I did notice that. I just had to look at paragraph 4 instead, but it did take like 20 seconds away from my precious time.

 

[Tatodotcom]

yea i noticed it and i spent a good minute like what is going on....not fair pearson!

 

[xxxhotstuffxxx]

it did take like 20 seconds away of my prescious time.

ask for a refund.

 

[jmoini]

i also saw this, and tried to figure what to do during the test time. it really threw me off. i read another passage and swear i saw another screw up, but it might have been me thinking it was because the other one was too.

i can't believe they would put that material out there in such an important test for us. pharmacists are expected to be 100% in filling scripts, the pcat test: 99% is fine.

 

[Moolji]

Yes, I did notice that. I just had to look at paragraph 4 instead, but it did take like 20 seconds away of my prescious time.

same for me, took 20sec & made me doubt the pcat if they had any other errors.

 

[hokierx]

luckily i took cliff's practice tests...basically if they first paragraph is SUPER short, then they usually mean the next paragraph....thank god i can filter mistakes like that yay

 

[govtmule]

yep, i noticed as well... also noticed a repeated reading essay from the august exam

 

[Debster]

I sure did! I was upset about it because I wasted precious seconds on trying to figure out what it was about. I kept trying to figure out what it was talking about. I will continue to be upset about these exams. I don't understand how you think you can determine ones capabilites when you don't even give them time to think. I'm sure if given enough time, I would have answered almost every question right.

 

[Matrix187]

The test wasn't all that hard for me. Just the sheer amount of time they give you sucks, and I doubt barely anyone ever finished every section on time without guessing.

 

[anyr]

I did notice! Although I didn't waste any time on it.

"..paragraph 3? It's paragraph four..? Yes, definitely paragraph four. Ha, mistake on the pcaaaaaat" was what pretty much went through my head.

 

[161927]

Yeah I noticed this and stopped to think someone didn't proofread the exam.

There was a chemistry question for which I am fairly convinced all the answers were wrong, but I can't talk specifics. It was one of the organic chemistry questions.

 

[Matrix187]

I know exactly what you're talking about. Someone doesn't know the organic chemistry rules at Pearson?

 

[RxRabiaRx]

I saw it too!! I was like um.... is it talking about paragraph 3 or 4...

weird.

 

[simplyv001]

i saw that too! and it screwed me up cause then i started to think the 1st paragraph was just the intro so it didn't technically count as a paragraph. so it slowed down the process for the next passages. ugh

 

[lsexie]

yea, i had to go over it like 5 times tryna see if my eyes were failing me ,lol,, then looked at the next one and found it there,,,, i actuallyy wanted to raise my hand up to ask lol

 

[Goalseeker]

Noticed it too and went back and forth with it to make sure I was correct in my analysis.

 

[Chuck61686]

The reading question error was very obvious, I caught that one instantly.
There was also a question on the chem portion that had no correct answers. On the bio section there was a question that definitely had two clear cut correct answers, I can't say which though, but if someone on the PCAT staff would like to PM me I'd be more than glad to explain it and provide evidence.

Could these questions be part of their 'experimental' questions? Lastly, I've come to theorize that none of the experimental questions are among the last 6-8 questions on the tests. Why? Cuz they know that many people who run out of time on the exam are most likely to guess on those final questions. So the % of people who got it correct related to genuine intelligence will be misleading. And the number who got it wrong may simply be not cuz they didn't know it, but cuz they were forced to guess due to time constraints.

 

[DeterminedGal09]

Hahah, I never did think about the experimental questions in that way. But that makes perfect sense and your probably right.

So, whos going to call and complain about the reading error? lol

 

[161927]

The reading question error was very obvious, I caught that one instantly.
There was also a question on the chem portion that had no correct answers. On the bio section there was a question that definitely had two clear cut correct answers, I can't say which though, but if someone on the PCAT staff would like to PM me I'd be more than glad to explain it and provide evidence.
.

Hey I think I know which bio question you were talking about. When I got home after the test I wikipedia'd it to check. Hmm too bad we can't say which question it was.

 

[OSU2118]

Haha.. is it a bad thing if I took the test yesterday and DIDN'T notice the mistake? Yikes. To my defense, on the reading parts I was able to read it once then answer the questions without referring back to the passage in order to save time.

 

[Chuck61686]

Hahah, I never did think about the experimental questions in that way. But that makes perfect sense and your probably right.

So, whos going to call and complain about the reading error? lol

I seriously should have done the last questions of the section FIRST. There's no way they'd put experimental questions in the last part of the test, unless they want unrepresentative results cuz people either 1) didn't answer the question based on time constraints 2) they flat out guessed 3) they were so rushed that they couldn't think the question through as thoroughly as the previous ones.

I really wish I had thought of this before the test!

 

[Transformer]

I seriously should have done the last questions of the section FIRST. There's no way they'd put experimental questions in the last part of the test, unless they want unrepresentative results cuz people either 1) didn't answer the question based on time constraints 2) they flat out guessed 3) they were so rushed that they couldn't think the question through as thoroughly as the previous ones.

I really wish I had thought of this before the test!

Instead of rushing and potentially panicking on all the questions, I skipped hard questions and focused on the easier ones. I made sure I done the easy ones 100% correct. Whatever questions I skipped and didn't get a chance to focus on was probably not worth my time anyways so I made educated guesses after the 5 minute warning was called. Using this method, you'll get through the entire section and potentially find a lot of easy questions at the end.

Statistically, you're bound to get 15 to 25 % of your guesses correct and those odds are good enough for me...at least under these time constraints.

 

[PrepharmKID]

Yeah, I found that to be quite hilarious. Not sure if they look through the test packets, but in huge lettering i left a note about how the question was worded incorrectly. Wonder if they'll read it...

So some idiot at my testing center had a watch that beeped a few times, then at like 11 it went off for like 2 or 3 minutes! What an ass! THEN at one point one of the test moderators stood at the front podium reading something and the microphone was on. He must have been like 80 so he had really heavy breathing that echoed through the testing center. haha, i was like wtf is that noise!

 

[SexyPlexi]

OMG Whaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaat? I didn't notice that. Wonder if it was one of the few I spent some time on in the reading section. Overall I felt the reading was totally fine. There were a couple that took me a minute...maybe it was one of those.

 

[illtreaturite1]

While I didn't notice too many issues with my books.....Some forms in the room I was testing in was actually missing pages between the biology and chem sections of the test. While it was only a couple of questions in each session , that would have caused me to flip my lid. I wonder if it was certain forms that are more buggy than others?

 

[fallingsky]

there were so many errors, especially in the reading compre section. 3-5 questions totally referred to the wrong paragraphs, and that got me confused because then I didn't know which paragraph should i refer to to answer the damn question. I feel like the ppl who created this test didn't even proofread their test at all.

 

[YellowLemons143]

There was also a biology question that didn't have a correct answer. I was upset.

 

[shamidyme]

It was in the reading section, i know i am not allowed to talk about it. But not going into specifics the question asked was asking about what the author meant in paragraph 3, but it was really in paragraph 4. Confused the hell out of me.

If the PCAT mods want to ask me what question it was I can speak to them by pm.

Man!!! i was so confused too!!! i had to read the question like 3 to 4 times to realize that they screwed up!!!

when you get a hold of them, please let us know what they say!

thanks

 

[sashagrl259]

This is what happens when there's a monopoly on the PCAT exam industry - mistakes on test questions, a website that completely shuts down 5 days before the exam - kind of annoying!

 

[Maestro Sucio]

I sure am glad to see someone else caught that. -_- I did notice it but I tried to push on since my head was hurting. /sigh, i wasted a good 20 seconds rereading the two paragraphs. Douche bags...

 

[Jammerdez1]

I think the errors on the reading section really screwed me over. Not sure how I interpreted the errors (ie-don't remember if I based my answers off the referred paragraph or off the one it was supposed to be), but my reading comp. score dropped from a 92 last year to a 47 this year and I can only imagine those errors had something to do with it (not the whole difference but definitely a solid chunk of it). Everything else went better than expected. Raised my chem score by nearly 20 points, my bio score by 5 and the other 2 sections stayed the same. In the end my composite dropped from 91 to 89, but I'm still happy with the 2 different sets of scores. If I get questions from a school about one set, I'll simply show them a copy of my other set and hope it offsets things for them.

 

[cinnamoroll12]

I think the errors on the reading section really screwed me over. Not sure how I interpreted the errors (ie-don't remember if I based my answers off the referred paragraph or off the one it was supposed to be), but my reading comp. score dropped from a 92 last year to a 47 this year and I can only imagine those errors had something to do with it (not the whole difference but definitely a solid chunk of it). Everything else went better than expected. Raised my chem score by nearly 20 points, my bio score by 5 and the other 2 sections stayed the same. In the end my composite dropped from 91 to 89, but I'm still happy with the 2 different sets of scores. If I get questions from a school about one set, I'll simply show them a copy of my other set and hope it offsets things for them.

I thought this is weird but my reading comp score dropped almost by 60 percentile.

 

[Jammerdez1]

I thought this is weird but my reading comp score dropped almost by 60 percentile.

Wonder if there's anything we can do about it, since asking for a rescore by hand wouldn't do anything.

 

[cinnamoroll12]

Wonder if there's anything we can do about it, since asking for a rescore by hand wouldn't do anything.

I've only thought of rescoring, but I really don't know what else to do besides calling them. I am totally freaked out by that one score I got. If not, I guess I might have to retake it in January.